


Harold

by illogicalbroccoli



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Baby Names, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Canon, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 06:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16949070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illogicalbroccoli/pseuds/illogicalbroccoli
Summary: Amanda and Sarek discuss their unborn son’s name.





	Harold

**Author's Note:**

> At a convention, Jane Wyatt, who played Amanda in The Original Series, was asked by fans what Spock’s first name was; she immediately responded “Harold.” So blame her for this.

“Harold?”

To most Terrans, it would seem that Sarek had spoken the word perfectly calmly. But Amanda had been married to the Vulcan long enough to notice the movement of his eyebrow, the slight tightening of the edges of his mouth. Were he a human, he would be shouting.

“It was my grandfather’s name,” she said, with what she hoped was an equally level tone.

“I had believed we had already settled on ‘Spock’” Sarek went on.

“Oh I like Spock,” Amanda said. “I just thought he should have a human name as well.”

“As well?”

Amanda allowed herself a small smile.

“Should he choose to live as a human,” she said, “it would be to his advantage to have a human-sounding name.”

Sarek had been slowly pacing across the floor of his study. Now he stopped, and stared at her.

“Should he choose to live as a human?” he asked, holding each word in his mouth as if it had an unfamiliar, perhaps even bitter flavour.

Amanda patted her stomach.

“Our child will be half-and-half,” she said. “Who is to say in which world he’ll feel most at home?”

“He will not ‘feel’ at home anywhere. He will be Vulcan. The doctors are most clear that the Vulcan elements in his biology are by far the predominant ones.”

“You don’t believe in the possibilty of his surprising you?” Amanda said.

“I acknowledge unpredictability,” said Sarek. “But even granting, for the sake of the argument, that he were in a position to choose between Human and Vulcan lifestyles, it is only logical that he would choose the Vulcan.”

Amanda smiled slightly.

“Doesn’t that beg the question, Sarek?”

“I am not sure I understand you, wife.”

“You’re assuming he’ll make the most logical choice. But that assumes he shows a Vulcan-style affinity for logic. If he takes after his human side, who knows what will move him?”

Sarek resumed his pacing, faster now.

“This is sounding dangerously deterministic, wife,” he said. “I have always believed that humans are fully capable of embracing logical principles. Are you not proof of this? Is not Michael?”

Amanda thought about the last time she saw their adopted daughter – herself reading the Caterpillar’s dialogue in a silly, pompous voice (modelled, in part, on that of her husband, if she was honest), and Michael giggling so hard that she began gasping for breath.

“I am being deterministic?” she said. “You were just telling me how ‘the Vulcan elements were the predominant ones.’”

Sarek actually frowned.

“You are seeking to agitate me, Amanda,” he said.  


“I am doing nothing of the sort!” she said. “But I think you should face the fact that, whatever you may want or expect, Spock could be at least as human as he is Vulcan. And if that is the case, he may well decide to live among humans, and if he does, he will need a human name. And that name should be Harold.”

Sarek stared at her for a moment.

“Harold S’chn T’gai?” he said.

A slight twitch at the corner of his mouth suggested a smothered impulse to smile.

“Or Harold Spock,” she said. “I believe that Spock does occur on Earth as a surname.”

“Harold Spock,” Sarek said slowly.

There was a moment of silence.

“Besides,” said Amanda. “If human culture is so unattractive compared to Vulcan, why did you choose a human wife?”

Sarek raised an eyebrow.

“It seemed – ”

“Like the logical thing at the time,” Amanda finished. “Someday, Sarek, I am going to demand that you explain that ‘logic’ to me.”

“I would welcome the opportunity,” Sarek said.

He raised two fingers.

 _Kiss and make up time, then,_ Amanda thought.

She brought her fingers up to meet his. As always when she did this, she watched the micro-expressions flit across Sarek’s face. She always wondered what he picked up from her when he did this; whatever it was, it usually seemed to make him happy.

After a moment he disengaged.

“Very well, wife,” he said. “We will make Spock aware that, in human contexts, he has the option of referring to himself as… Harold.”  


Amanda smiled.

“But,” he said. “I believe it would be prudent not to include this in his official birth registration. The Vulcan Office of Statistics would find it rather… unusual.”  


“Fuddy-duddy,” said Amanda.

Sarek raised an eyebrow.

“You know I have only made this concession because I do not believe that the situation will arise,” he said.  


“We shall see,” said Amanda. “Oh!”

Sarek looked at her quizzically.

“Harold kicked me!” she said in explanation.

The look Sarek gave her was incomprehensible.


End file.
